not bad

if you want good portions and real food this is a place you would consider. I was told to bring out of town friends here for a taste of NY but not expensive by NYCMOVE.COM they always seems to know whats going on for each ocassion.

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338 out of 723 people found this review helpful.

Real Italian

I write this because of my surprise in seeing so many lukewarm (and worse) responses to this marvelous place. After three or four visits to 50 Carmine, I can confirm that the cooking has a kind of authenticity and imagination that speaks to the best offerings in Italy--indeed, better than many even there. Classics like Carbonara and Ragu are done with profound accuracy and liveliness; more experimental dishes like the Spaghetti al Vino Rosso are fascinating. And it is an extraordinary value: think of 50 Carmine as Poor Man's Babbo.

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341 out of 723 people found this review helpful.

Excellent

After reading several rave reviews we decided to try it during a recent trip to NYC with my family. I made a reservation for an off night and they were VERY accomidating when I called and told them we would be late. We had our children with us. 12yr old is much more adventurious then our 8yr old- but both left happy and well fed.
Service was very good and our waiter was accomidating. We aked the waiter if it would be possible to prepare a simple pasta-butter-parmesan cheese plate for our 8yr old. No problem and he devoured the dish.
The food was excellent- signature Pasta with Duck Ragu was superb, as was the many cheese pasta and the Ravioli with Browned Butter.
Let me be frank about this, the food we were served was superb. However, I do have a hew nits to pick- 1)Cost Each course is a luncheon sized portion, but at a dinner sized price. 2) Decor- the butcher paper covered tables kept my kids occupied, but given the quality of the food, the cost and the presentation, I would expect a more formal environment.
Highly recomended.

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334 out of 737 people found this review helpful.

taste: music v. food

After the great reviews I'd read, our dinner party was disappointed. Sitting under one of the music system speakers didn't help, and the waitperson didn't help either, in acceding to our request to turn down the volume. Somehow, the music didn't interfere with the ownerships' taste buds. The food was eminently forgettable. (I should say none of us ordered a pasta dish, so we can't rate those.)

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326 out of 687 people found this review helpful.

don't understand the other reviews

50 carmine is an excellent local restaurant. you're only paying $10-15 for pasta, its small, and the food is simple, so keep your expectations at neighborhood restaurant and you'll be very happy. service was excellent -- the waitress and winemeister as he was called -- no pretension -- knew their stuff. best items were what one would expect from the reviews -- simple dishes (3-4 ingredients tops), maybe some different flavors, very fresh tasting and uncomplicated. spinach salad w/ bacon and egg -- 3 ingredients --but high quality, was very tasty. Get the spaghetti w/ red wine -- appetizer portion. you want to try it, you'll eat it, you won't mind spending $10 on it, you'll think its interesting, but you don't want it to be your meal and to keep you from eating one of the other pastas. the gnocchi w/ pea shoots, favas, and bacon in butter was amazing. tasted like spring. i'd rate 50 carmine above most italian restaurants that serve the same old lame food (you won't find tomato sauce on the menu), comparable to supper, but a small step below lupa.

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301 out of 669 people found this review helpful.

Own stock in Salt?

The waitress went over the specials; we asked her back for some further explanations and suggestions. She did a wonderful job illuminating us to the dishes and nuances in tastes. She chose the Squid appetizer, and the Lasagnette. I choose the Lobster Soup special, and Gnocchi with Duck Confit. That was the last time we saw our waitress till she dutifully “dropped” the check to us.
Bread arrived to the table by the “bus person” he seemed nice but never got more than a nod from him. The soups flavor was very nice, but was mostly obliterated by an excess amount of salt. I wanted to say something, but no waitress was in sight. I figured I would mention the saltiness problem at the end of the meal, and eagerly awaited the pasta dish. I eagerly pierced the first gnocchi, amazingly this dish was also overpowered by the intense taste of salt, I drank many a glass of water.
Not once during our meal, and amazingly even when the bill was “dropped” off did I ever hear “How is your meal? “Is everything OK?”, “Did you enjoy?”, nothing, NADA. I spent $110. Needless to say, we left in a quandary!

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308 out of 668 people found this review helpful.

disappointing!

I had dinner at "50 Carmine" this evening with 3 friends. We had high expectations based on the review at the Metro.com website.
Our appetizers were lackluster. The "secondi" were major disappointments. I ordered the roast suckling pig. If I didn't know I was eating pork, I wouldn't have guessed it. The meat was hacked into tiny pieces, and served beneath sauteed greens and covered in a sauce that tasted mostly of beef demi-glace, completely overwhelming the pork. Porchetta is not typically served with a sauce, but if it is, the sauce should not overwhelm the taste of the meat. Good Italian cooking tastes like what it is: pork should taste like pork. The rabbit was not special at all, and neither was the red snapper. Desserts were equally disappointing. The panna cotta tasted like it had egg whites beaten into it. The resulting texture was too fluffy and loose. The tangerine olive oil cake would be great for breakfast with a cup of coffee, but lacked significance as served. A scoop of tangerine gelato might have made it a more substantial dessert.
None of us understand how or why this restaurant garnered such accolades.

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343 out of 789 people found this review helpful.

like lemmings to the sea

WHAT is going on out there in mediaville? After reading yet another article about this chef in last Sunday's magazine, I got a reservation and 3 of us showed up at 8:20 for our 8:15 reservation (I called to say I'd be late) We had to wait 30 min for a bad table, were given free desserts (nice). But the food! What a joke (rip off). The "lasagnette" was sent back as it was burnt, rubbery, dreadful. The boar sauce was a few balls of hard awful meat. We waited almost an hour for entrees. I can't believe how much better my cooking is than this touted S. Jenkins. Yikes.

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236 out of 513 people found this review helpful.